Jesus' message of forgiveness needs to be learned by politicians across parties, a senior Liberal Democrat figures told Christian Today on Tuesday.

Baroness Brinton, president of the Lib Dems and a committed Christian, spoke at a prayer breakfast at the party's conference and highlighted Jesus' command to forgive "not seven times, but seventy-seven times". She said that only through loving one's enemy that Britain could curb a "Pandora's box" of abuse and anger "that somehow we have given ourselves permission to unleash".

Baroness Brinton, who is also president of the Lib Dem Christian Forum, spoke of a time she had to "lay my burden of anger at the foot of the cross" and said: "I am worried about politics today. I am worried about an attitude that says anger is OK.

"We seem to have lost an ability not just to forgive but to forgive again repeatedly."

Afterwards she told Christian Today: "I don't understand how as a tolerant society we have become so unforgiving.

"We have to learn to forgive."

After the UK's vote to leave the European Union hate crime surged by up to 58 per cent on the year before, according to figures from the National Police Chiefs' Council. Data suggests there was a dramatic spike in hate crimes in the week after the referendum which remained high in the following weeks. But despite the marked increase the reality is likely to be far higher as hate crimes are notoriously under reported, according to the government's own hate crime strategy.

As well as post-Brexit abuse, Baroness Brinton highlighted anger within the Labour party and said she was "really worried" about the leadership election.

"To be rude and aggressive to people of another party is distasteful.

"But to be rude and aggressive within your own party is unforgivable. It feels like the NUS days of the 70s. It feel like student politics of that era."

In a speech to the conference later on Tuesday she will stress the Lib Dems are distinct from Labour, the Conservatives and UKIP because they are "open, tolerant and united".

She is expected to say: "We are the only major party that has not traded on fear, that challenges the racism, nationalism and populism that is sweeping the country at the moment."